"The soul, like the body, lives by what it feeds on"
About this Quote
Holland’s line smuggles a moral program into a piece of homespun physiology. By pairing “soul” with “body,” he borrows the authority of something empirically obvious: you can watch a diet strengthen or ruin a person. Then he quietly extends that logic to the inner life, insisting that character isn’t a mysterious essence you either possess or don’t; it’s an organism with inputs. “Feeds on” is the pressure point. It makes reading, conversation, entertainment, and even resentment sound less like harmless preferences and more like nutrition - daily, cumulative, consequential.
The intent is partly Victorian self-help, partly Protestant discipline: curate what you consume or become misshapen by it. Holland wrote in a 19th-century America obsessed with moral improvement, temperance, and the idea that culture (books, sermons, “uplifting” company) could sand down vice and manufacture virtue. The metaphor flatters the reader with agency: you’re not doomed, you’re dieting.
Subtext, though, is where the line sharpens. If the soul “lives by” its diet, then neglect is a slow starvation, not a neutral choice. It also implies hierarchy: some foods are “wholesome,” others corrupting. That’s an invitation to self-policing, and occasionally to policing others - the same logic that powered anxieties about “bad” novels, theater, or urban amusements.
The quote still hits because it anticipates the modern attention economy. Algorithms are meal planners. Doomscrolling is a junk diet with a halo of necessity. Holland’s metaphor doesn’t just moralize; it describes how exposure becomes appetite, and appetite becomes identity.
The intent is partly Victorian self-help, partly Protestant discipline: curate what you consume or become misshapen by it. Holland wrote in a 19th-century America obsessed with moral improvement, temperance, and the idea that culture (books, sermons, “uplifting” company) could sand down vice and manufacture virtue. The metaphor flatters the reader with agency: you’re not doomed, you’re dieting.
Subtext, though, is where the line sharpens. If the soul “lives by” its diet, then neglect is a slow starvation, not a neutral choice. It also implies hierarchy: some foods are “wholesome,” others corrupting. That’s an invitation to self-policing, and occasionally to policing others - the same logic that powered anxieties about “bad” novels, theater, or urban amusements.
The quote still hits because it anticipates the modern attention economy. Algorithms are meal planners. Doomscrolling is a junk diet with a halo of necessity. Holland’s metaphor doesn’t just moralize; it describes how exposure becomes appetite, and appetite becomes identity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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